Tardis Cake Tutorial

I wanted to do a simple tutorial on how I made this tardis cake. I LOVE Doctor Who and have been wanting to make a tardis cake for a while. Finally a client contacted me and wanted an awesome tardis cake for her son’s 11th bday. I love that her 11 year old son wants a tardis cake! Raising that kid right! Marshmallow fondant made using the LMF fondant recipe.

Step one is to make everything you’re going to need for this cake.

Bake your cakes, make your buttercream and modeling chocolate a day in advance. Once your cakes are baked and cooled, wrap them in plastic wrap and chill them in the fridge so they are easier to cut.

Bake one 8″ square cake (or bigger if you want a bigger cake) I used chocolate cake. You could also use vanilla cake if you wanted to do that instead.Make one batch buttercream. I use swiss meringue buttercream because it gets nice and firm in the fridge so you can get sharp edges. Shortening based buttercream wont be good for this projectMake blue modeling chocolate. Use Lauren Kitchen’s Recipe. Add blue food color and a little black to the corn syrup (about a tablespoon or blue and 1 tsp black) to the warmed corn syrup to get the proper color.Make 1 batch LMF white fondant for the trim and the base board.
You’ll also need two 10″ cardboard rounds and some ribbon
One floral light that you can get at Joanns or online
Print out the tardis decals pdf (these are not edible, peel them off before you eat the cake)Tools
x-acto knife
ceramic tools for smoothing
paint brush
food colorwhite food color or titanium dioxide
salt
small offset spatula
two 10″ round cardboards
extra cardboard
ruler
scissors
plastic drinking straws
bread knife for cutting cake
rolling pin
bench scraper or putty knife

Making the Board

Start off by gluing two 10″ rounds together. Glue the ribbon around the outside to cover the rough edge. Roll out some of the white fondant and attach the fondant to the board with a little crisco or water. Trim off the excess fondant with an x-acto knife. Wet the entire top of the fondant with a clean, flat paint brush and a liberal amount of water. You want to create a nice wet surface to paint on.

I used this image as inspiration for my galaxy

I divided up my food color into a ceramic egg dish for ease. I added a little water to each color to thin it out. Any container will do. Even a bunch of little cups if that is all you have. I started off with yellow and worked outwards. Trying to be slightly random and not blending too much because I don’t want things to get too muddy. You can’t really do this part wrong. Just don’t over-do it.

I don’t take the color all the way to the edge though. I paint the edges with black food color straight out of the bottle because it’s nice and thick and opaque.

Sprinkle some salt randomly over the board to create little spots that look like stars. Next I take the whole thing outside and splatter some of the white food color onto the board to resemble the galaxy. A toothbrush could work for this or a big dry brush

I made this board two days in advance so that it plenty of time to dry

Making the cakeStart off by cutting your 8″ square cake into four pieces. Use some of your extra cardboard to make two 4.25″ square piece of cardboard. Make another piece that is 4″ square. So you should have three square pieces of cardboard. Start stacking the cakes on one of the 4.25″ pieces of cardboard. Put about .25″ of buttercream between each layer. Don’t put too much or it will squish out.

Once you get half way through the cake. Push a plastic straw into the middle of the cake. At the point that the straw is level with the cake, mark it with your fingernail and make a cut. Measure out 3 other straws and trim to the same height. These will support the top part of your cake so it doesn’t fall over or get too compressed. Use a little more buttercream to glue the 4″ square cardboard on top of the straws and cake. Continue stacking the cakes until you use the rest of the cake. I split each pice of cake in half so I had more layers of buttercream but you don’t have to do that.

Place the cake into the freezer for at least an hour until it is nice and firm so that when we add buttercream on the outside, it wont flop around.

Once the cake is nice and firm, apply a liberal coat of buttercream to the outside and top of the cake. Don’t worry about smoothing it out. Try and build out the buttercream so it matches the depth of the board the cake is sitting on. Put it back in the freezer to firm up again. Use your putty knife to make the top level. Put the other 4.25″ square on top. Begin scraping down the sides to match up with edges of the square top and bottom. Continue the process of applying buttercream, chilling and scraping off excess until you have nice straight sides and sharp corners. Use a ruler to help guide you in making the sides straight by putting the ruler flat on its end and seeing where there are gaps. Pull the cardboard square off the top before covering in chocolate.

Take a portion of your blue modeling chocolate and roll it out to 1/8″ Use your ruler to check that the piece you roll out is roughly the size of one of the sides of your tardis. Use your x-acto to trim off the edges as close to the corners of your cake as possible. Use your ruler if you need to, to make straight cuts. Apply to all sides and top of the cake.

**update** I have learned since I made this tutorial that if you chill the panels of modeling chocolate in the fridge for a few minutes, they are easier to handle and cut. You can also chill panels of fondant if that is what you are using.

Roll out a second piece of thin modeling chocolate and apply over the first layer of modeling chocolate. At this point the cake should be sweating slightly so the chocolate should stick pretty easily. Trim off excess as we did in the first step. Use the ruler to measure out spaces for four windows. Don’t forget to leave space around the top and bottom edges to apply thin strips of chocolate as seen in the example photo. Use the x-acto blad to gently pull out the squares that will be the windows. Fix any seams with your ceramic tool.

Cut out some thin strips of chocolate about .25″. Apply these to the corners of the tardis. Use your ceramic tool to smooth out the edges and corners. Use the piece of cardboard that you pulled off the buttercream as a template to make a square piece of chocolate for the top of the tardis.

There is a slightly peaked piece of chocolate at the top of the tardis. To make this, start out with big piece of chocolate and use the rolling pin to create peaks. Start in the middle of the chocolate and roll towards one edge. Not too much pressure at first, more pressure towards the edge. You are trying to create a pyramid shape. Continue this process on all four corners starting from the center. Trim off the excess and place on top. Smooth down the rough edges and trim again if necessary.

Time to put in the light! Cute a hole through the thick piece of fondant that is as wide and deep as your floral light so that you can place the light into the hole and only the bulb shoes at the top. Fill the hole in with extra chocolate until the top is flush again.

Roll out a thin piece of chocolate into a square, use the cardboard template from before. Cut the square into four triangles. Cut the tips off the top of each triangle and place on top of the roof and smooth down the edges with your ceramic smoothing tool.

Use some small pieces of chocolate to make a snake. Cute into 4 pieces as tall as the light. Roll out a small piece and use a round cutter to put on top of the light. Roll out small ball and squish it on top of the flat round piece and then a very small ball on top of that as seen in photo.

Cut out the police box signs and stick to some cut pieces of chocolate cut to size and apply to the tops of the tardis. Cut out the rest of the decals an apply according to photo

Paint the top set of windows with some black food color. Trim out some long thin pieces of white fondant. The windows should be the width of the ruler so use the ruler to judge how long the pieces should be. You can also pipe royal into the windows if you want but I preferred doing it this way although it is time consuming.

Use a flat brush to clean up any condensation or rough edges. Use your smoothing tool to clean up the edges and flatten any bumps on the surface. I spent way too long on this part but I’m obsessive. Finish the cake off by putting the tardis on your prepared board!

Check out the video below the finished project. I hope you enjoyed the tutorial! If you have any questions just leave them in the comments and I’ll try to answer them as best as I can

Is modeling chocolate hard to cut through? I’m making a chocolate cake with a chocolate mousse filling so I know I need to keep it in the fridge since it has dairy, but I read to not put a modeling chocolate covered cake in the fridge or its gonna be crazy hard to cut through. What do you suggest?

http://www.artisancakecompany.com/ Elizabeth Marek

Modeling chocolate is not hard to cut through

Kim Jarrin

Oh good to hear lol once more thing please..for the modeling chocolate recipe you followed, did you only make one batch? I’m going to be making my layers with 6″ cake squares instead of the 4″ so I’m wondering how much of the white chocolate and corn syrup ill need. Thank you!!

http://www.artisancakecompany.com/ Elizabeth Marek

I would probably make a double batch

Michael Bloom

hi,
I am new to making cakes and i just wanted to say i love your tutorials. I have learned a lot from watching you make cake sculptures. This has really opened up a world of creativity for me to explore. I recently decided to jump in head first and make a cake sculpture following your instructions, I made the tardis cake for my brother and dads birthday (they are only 2 days apart). This was the first cake sculpture I have made and probably the third cake i have ever made. It was a lot of work (and cursing) but i really enjoyed the experience. My family was very surprised and impressed with what i made, and all of the waitresses at the restaurant couldn’t believe that it was a cake. They thought it was a model or something. It doesn’t show very well in the photo but i even made an led light in the top like you did in yours. I have another birthday coming up for my mother, I am planning on making a Faberge egg cake. I can’t wait to get started on another cake sculpture.

Thanks,
Michael

Francene McILroy

Hi Elizabeth, thanks so much for sharing this amazing cake. My husband and I are going to make this for our son’s 10th birthday next month but he’s going to add sounds to it. Can you please tell me how much modelling chocolate is required for this cake? The stockists in New Zealand here sell them in 150gram packets.
Thanks Francene

Angela Weber Palazzini

Can you use any kind of fondant for the board to paint on or does it have to be MMF?

Angela Weber Palazzini

Can you please tell me what color blue you used for this cake was it royal or navy mixed with black. All I can find on the previous posts is blue with 1 tablespoon blue and 1 teaspoon black. Thank you

http://www.artisancakecompany.com/ Elizabeth Marek

Royal blue with black

Lauren Bauer

A friend of mine found this and asked me if I could make a TARDIS cake for her daughter’s birthday next month. Thank you so much for posting this tutorial! I’ve never made a square cake before, but I think I can do it thanks to your writeup.

Emiloly

My attempt! I got a bit tired before the end LOL! My sister was THRILLED! Thanks so much for such an awesome tutorial.

Caren Ling

Hi Elizabeth! Thank you for your awesome tutorial! I had been researching what cake to bake for my huge dr who fan bf! And I found you!! I made it for his birthday! And he loved it! Here are the pictures of my cake! I was running out of time.. so it’s lack of details and touch up anyways.. thank you sooo much!!! ♡♡

麦妍

Hi there! Thank you for this tutorial. I love this cake. My boyfriend is a huge Doctor Who fan, so I am looking to prepare this for his birthday. I have a question though. Would it be possible to apply strips to form the window frames instead of cutting them out of a full second layer of modelling chocolate? I know that there would be gaps, but I thought it possible to just blend them in? I want to try and avoid to have too much excess chocolate in the end as I would have barely the chance to use it for another cake. I hope you still check those old entries

Marwan Sabry

This is amazing! I do have one question tho, would it still be okay if I use sugar dough instead of modeling chocolate?

http://www.artisancakecompany.com/ Elizabeth Marek

Yes

Amanda Smalls Davis

Did you use gel food color or regular?

Jennifer Roberts

THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS! My daughter turns 16 in less than a week and she LOVES Dr. Who. I did find a Tardis Cake mold, but this will certainly help me! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Patrick

Oops. Now with pictures!

Patrick

Hi Elizabeth.

I thought of doing this cake a long time ago before I got online and discovered it wasn’t a completely original idea. But yours was so awesome and your guide was a life saver for someone like me. I had never made a cake before this one and to make things more interesting it had to be a sugar free cheesecake. My girlfriend is type 1 diabetic. I thought I would just stop by here and say thanks and leave some pictures of my project.

MADDISON

what quantity of modelling chocolate was required for this cake and do you have a recipe for it?
also, how did you get to that colour?

Gin Di Battista

Thank you for this awesome tutorial. I’m adding it to my “must make” project list.

Christine

Can I use just a regular buttercream icing, like icing sugar, butter and vanilla? I’m out of granulated sugar.

Hello. I am wondering if you have any tips when using a box cake (Im really terrible at the baking part and my cakes never turn out right). Also, can I cover this in fondant or does it turn out best using modelling chocolate?

Ashima Chawla

Hi, how did you colour on modelling chocolate (windows)? I tried using dust vodka as well as corn syrup, it did not stick well and was leaving uncoloured spots. Please help me, I’m making this cake on tuesday and I need it to be perfect.
P.S. THIS IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL TARDIS CAKE I HAVE SEEN!

http://www.artisancakecompany.com/ Elizabeth Marek

Look at the tutorial again, its a black square with white over the top

Ashima Chawla

Yes, that black- is it a gel colour or liquid? Or powder mixed with something? Because i tried powder mixed with vodka as well as with corn syrup and it did not work.

Jessica Marie Kennedy

I’m making this for my dad’s birthday and i just was wondering what kind of food coloring you used. The liquid stuff or the one that’s sorta jelly like? Thanks!

Judy Jay Cakes

Hello Elizabeth, first of all I want to say Congratulations on your beautiful baby!!! Ok, do I have to keep the light on? Or can I turn it on when the party starts? If so, then how do I take it out to put it on and off? Thanks, Judy

http://www.artisancakecompany.com/ Elizabeth Marek

You can keep it on, the battery life is like 12 hours

Lisa Sinclair

This is awesome! Thank you for sharing! So much info I can apply to other cakes, too.

sophie

wow awesome! my son is turning 7 and has been asking for a ‘standing up tardis cake’ since his last birthday! I am going to follow your tutorial and hopefully make something that looks half way as nice!

http://www.artisancakecompany.com/ Elizabeth Marek

You can do it! I believe in you

Lisa Gilmore Lier

I had planned on making this cake for my youngest son’s groom’s cake. I haven’t made
decorated cakes in many years and wanted to make this for him. I tested various
cake recipes and made modeling chocolate; I was prepared to work on it for the
day before the wedding. Long story short, he was here for 2 days before the
wedding and before I knew what was happening he was taking the lead in this
project and I became his decorating assistant! We took your tutorial and
learned to do this together. He cut the layers into squares; crumb-coated
the stacked cake… rolled, cut and placed the modeling chocolate on the cake.
It was so much fun and what a wonderful memory for us, eh? His friends at
the reception commented on it and he just grinned! THANK YOU so much for the
tutorial! I am uploading our finished product… not perfect, but not too
bad considering the learning curve!

The sheet cake case is Chocolate Stout Cake with raspberry
filling, The fondant was rolled to look like sky and we had made Dr Who
chocolates to place around the cake… the TARDIS is a traditional White Almond
Wedding cake with just a little almond butter cream in between the layers.
I may do this again after I learn more about using modeling chocolate…
that was the most difficult part, keeping it cool/cold so it was easier to work
with without it being too warm and sticky.. and stretching out when you pick it
up, etc. The very top of the TARDIS is fondant.. had run short of
modeling chocolate and at that point we hadn’t the time to make more. As
I mentioned, we’ve never done anything close to this before!

http://www.artisancakecompany.com/ Elizabeth Marek

awww That is an awesome memory!

Kala Hammonds

I am starting this cake tomorrow for my brothers 14th bday on Saturday. I am so excited and nervous this is the biggest cake I have ever taken on. there are going to be a lot of people so I am making a 14″ round cake to sit the tardis on and making the tardis out 6 6″ square pieces of cake. would it be better to use dowel rods in the tardis rather than straws and do you have any other advise for me? Thanks

Kaiti Maddox

great stuff, but i found that using the designated amounts of food coloring made it way too dark.

http://www.artisancakecompany.com/ Elizabeth Marek

Sorry, that’s what I used. You can always adjust the amounts for what works for you. Depending on your materials, different results can happen

Slynn

Love this cake! 2 questions:
What recipe do you use for swiss meringue buttercream?
When you turn the light on, how long will it stay on? Wanting to make it a day ahead.

http://www.artisancakecompany.com/ Elizabeth Marek

there is a recipe on my website under the recipes tab

I dont know how long the light will stay on. It might say on the package.

cook

Hi! I applied the modeling chocolate base layer and put the cake in the freezer yesterday (because of time issues) and am applying the chocolate doors today, but as the cake is coming to room temperature it’s sweating. That would be fine, but it’s making blue streaks down the cake. Is there a clean, nice way to fix it? And will it streak every time it comes out of the fridge/freezer?

artisancakes

you need to defrost your cake in the fridge before you bring it out. Frozen cakes will sweat so much it will ruin your cake

Bambi Finstead Whitford

Instead of buttercream do you think Ganache would work, and what is the reason not to use shortening buttercream?

Krista

Hi! I am new to cake making and decorating and I have never worked with modeling chocolate before. Could you use fondant instead of the modeling chocolate?

artisancakes

You could if you wanted to but it’s not quite as sturdy as modeling chocolate

Krista

Ok! LAST question Did you use the same frosting to fill and frost the cake with? I can’t tell from the picture but it looks like 2 different types…Do you have a buttercream recipe you could recommend?? Thank you!!

artisancakes

I use the same for both. The recipes are in the recipes tab of the website

DENISE MILLER

If you don’t mind how much does it cost to make this cake?

Jen

Hi there,

Can you use fondant instead of modelling chocolate? Also, could you please tell me what kind of food colouring you used for the cake board? Did you use gel or liquid food colouring?

Fantastic cake!!

Debbie Smith

I just made this cake for my son’s 18th birthday. I had never tried anything like this before, so not knowing how much modeling chocolate I would need, I followed the link in your recipe, and now I have two thirds of a batch of blue modeling chocolate left over! Also, so very little of the fondant is used for the window frames, it would have been easier just to cut them out of thin foam core. Now I have a block of that left over. Good thing I did not go to the trouble of making the fondant!!. The swiss buttercream icing was delicious (I made chocolate) but was too soft. Can confectioners sugar be added to stiffen it up some? I had to keep the whole thing in the freezer to keep the shape from collapsing, even with the straw supports. I also used cardboard trapezoid shapes ( a triangle with the tip cut off) to make the roof with and used modeling chocolate on top of that because I could not get the pyramid shape correct. Plus, the light I found was about as big around as a half dollar, so I had to have a large space to put the light into after the roof was assembled. It took me all day, but the smile on my son’s face was priceless!! Thanks so much, and I hope these hints might be helpful to other extreme beginners who think they could never try anything like this. When he graduates this spring, I may just try to make a graduation cap cake!!

artisancakes

I understand you might not want to use fondant for the windows but cake decorators try not to use anything non-edible in cake design (on the outside) because it is dangerous to eat and foam core could easily become a choking hazard. If your structure was wobbly (wibbly wobbly) it was most likely due to the fact your straws where not the same height or your cake was too soft (usually box mix). Cakes also need to be chilled all the way through in the fridge before you can start decorating. The butter holds the structure together. If your buttercream is too soft, it is because your egg whites where not quite cool enough and it melted the butter some. Either pop it in the fridge for a bit to chill it some and re-whip or add more butter.

Beccy

Fantastic cake, just a quick question – where did you get the light from? For the life of me I cannot find one. Best match so far is a blue LED earring. Thanks

artisancakes

in the floral section at michaels

Beccy

Thanks x

Isabel Amorim

Hello! I made the modeling chocolate yesterday. I was so anxious about making it that I forgot about the Blue food colouring. The chocolate spent 12 hours In the fridge and it’s totally hard and I have no idea how to mix it all together and manage it. How do I do? Thanks!! I’m from Brazil though, sorry about the bad english :p

artisancakes

Next time don’t put it in the fridge at all. Chocolate does not need to be refrigerated and you’ll just make it harder on yourself (pun haha). Let the chocolate come to room temp then heat in the microwave about 15 seconds and knead until smooth and then add your color. It will be really soft again so you might have to let it set up a little at room temp before you can use it.

Isabel Amorim

Thank you! I made it with my boyfriend’s mother and my friend was really surprised. It was delicious too!!

Eve

I did one similar to this, but on very short notice using fondant instead of modeling chocolate. My straws were also weaker, and I didn’t have time to freeze it before applying the crumb coat. The result was a Tardis that leaned like the Tower of Pisa and eventually crumpled under the weight. Sturdy straws or dowels are a MUST, and you really need to take the time to freeze the cake firm to get clean lines. Luckily the girls I made my cake for had a sense of humour and considered the cake’s deterioration over time part of its entertainment value.

artisancakes

haha and you got a great story out of it!

Sarah Woodcock

I’m going to try to make this for the 50th tomorrow. It looks birlliant. Absolutely brilliant.

Maura

Hi, how long does this cake take to make?

Natalie

AMAZING <3 My friend and I will try and make this.. it wont look as fantastic as your job, but I love the idea and Doctor Who <3

Claire Tutka

Hi I was wondering if you could use chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream instead of plain?

artisancakes

yes you can

Amber Vogel

Can you go without the cardboard?

artisancakes

If you do then your cake well not be straight and possibly fall over

Amber Vogel

Where did you get the cardboard?

artisancakes

you can get it from the cake decorating section of a walmart or craft store like michaels or hobby lobby

Tiffany

Where did you buy the police box signs?

Melissa Mattox

How did you make the police box signs?

Breanne

I’m wanting to do this for my wedding My question is, how would I cut it without utterly destroying it?

artisancakes

Cut it like a normal cake. From the top down. Once you remove all the slices from the top half, remove the cardboard and slice up the bottom half. Make sure you remove the straws from the bottom half when you remove the cardboard. Hope that makes sense! Liz

Lou Lou Bellizzi

OMFG I want this cake… I will make this cake!!! Gosh my other half would FLIP with joy if I was able to make this for him!!!

I made a chocolate butter cake and chilled it before I cut it up
I filled it with swiss meringue buttercream but any kind of buttercream will work (not canned frosting) I used americolor food coloring but any gel kind will work (like wilton)

Gracie

Thanks! You’re amazing!!!

sugarflo

fantastic tutorial. Thanks!

Alice

thank you for the great advice! I was wondering.. can the chocolate go into the fridge? or will it get all melty?

artisancakes

yes it can, it will just get hard not melty

Alice

Also- about how much modeling chocolate did you use? one batch of the recipe that you shared above?

Alice

About how much did you charge for this cake?

artisancakes

Hi Alice, I don’t really give out those kinds of answers but you can take a look at my pricing page to see about how much I charge for cakes per serving

artisancakes

Yes I had about a cup left over

Georgiii Scott

How much would you say, approximately, this would cost to make?

Gracie

Wow! This is PERFECT! I plan to make this for my sister’s birthday in December. I have a few questions:

1. What type of chocolate cake did you use? (any type, layer cake, pound cake, etc.)
2. What did you fill the cake with?
3. What flavor of buttercream did you use? (I should probably know but……)
4. Where did you get the cardboard squares and rounds?
5. What type of food coloring did you use?
6. How could someone at home make the printed decorations edible? (Is is possible?)

Kim Franco

For the edible image, you can try your local grocery store. Since the decals aren’t copyrighted, you shouldn’t have an issue. Make sure it is scaled properly for your cake on your paper before bringing it to have them print though, otherwise the scale will be way off.

Cardboard you can get at Michaels, AC Moore, Jo Ann’s or any other craft stores. Also, restaurant supply stores usually have cake boards for sale, but in bigger packages.

The rest of the details the blogger will have to answer, but at least I can help with those two.

artisancakes

You can use ganache if you want to. If you don’t have butter in your buttercream it will not harden in the fridge, which is very important for this type of cakes stability. Plus shortening tastes awful.

JA

I am a true.beginner (have made my own frostiness but never fondant or modeling chocolate) and am wondering how to roll out the chocolate. I let it set overnight like Lauren Kitchens says in her tutorial, but now it is hard as rock–do I heat it to soften it? Work something into it? Thanks in advance for your counsel. LOVE the cake design!

artisancakes

Heat for like 10 seconds and then knead until smooth Don’t worry, that is normal

Shelley Khapova

Thank you so much for this Tutorial, your skill and direction is amazing! This was a very pleasant and helpful source of help to me recently, a friend asked me if I could make a Tardis cake for her Dad (who is a HUGE fan of Dr Who) I had an idea of what I wanted to do but thought Id google the world to see what other talented souls out there had come up with for some inspiration and here your tutorial comes up… Your cake board was the most amazing part for me! I loved the way you painted the fondant, I tried my best to emulate this for my friend. Also, the way you fitted the supports was most helpful and something that worked very well when I tried it. I loved the light and replicated it in my own attempt ( I had originally seen a sound FX control I wanted to include but it was a little bulky, the submersible lights worked perfectly Ive attached a pic of my efforts. ( This was actually a carrot cake, with swiss meringue buttercream and white chocolate clay outer. My friend and her Dad were very happy I hope you dont mind me sharing this pic of it here, but if you have the time, i would love to know what you think of my fan made cake. I was sure to let all concerned know where my help came from, again, thank you for sharing your amazing skill! You are a HUGE inspiration to me

Shelley Khapova

Im sorry, I posted it twice new to this!

Shelley Khapova

Oh gosh, I am so blown away by your response Ive not known how to reply! Thank you so much <3 I was very pleased with the result of my efforts, but if it were not for your extraordinary talent and your generosity in sharing such a precise and detailed tutorial this cake may not have worked I am in the very basic beginnings of wanting to make a go at cake artistry. When I see your work, I am so inspired (totally daunted of course hehe! ) but alive with possibilities. You are a HUGE inspiration to me, thank you so much for your art Elizabeth It gives me hope that I might oneday also find a way to make this a lifestyle instead of a dream <3 All the best to you always

Um wow! you are incredibly talented! I am insanely impressed! You did a great job with the board and that tardis is so straight and tall! I would say you did a better job than me haha! Seriously, very very impressive. You have talent

Brandy Wilson

Wow, I hope mine is half as successful as yours! WTG

KATHRYN

WANT THIS CAKE FOR MY BIRTHDAY SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!

ihartmusicals

How do you cut it up? Novice cake baker here, so with all of the modeling chocolate and stuff, how do you get the cardboard out to cut it up?

artisancakes

start from the top, cut down until you get to the cardboard and serve it up. Remove the cardboard and then cut up the rest of the cake under the cardboard

Kara Mangum Nelsen

WOW! Thank you SO much for this amazing tutorial, I’ve been dying to try a TARDIS cake!

Jessica Schreib

I love this! It looks fantastic (and i want one for my birthday )
One question though: how do you cut the cake with the cardboard in it?

http://thesearejessicakes.tumblr.com/ Jess N

You’d treat it like you would any regular tiered cake – deal with the top half, then once that’s cut up, remove the carboard, and work on cutting up the bottom half .^_^

Torben Wehling

I just want to ask how much did everything cost?

artisancakes

Sorry I don’t know exactly

Torben Wehling

can you say it circa? I need a bit of time to gather everything and i want to gift it around christmas so i need a bit time to gather the Money. (Sorry for mistakes, english is not my native language)

artisancakes

Depending on your area, the costs will be different. I suggest making a list of the ingredients and price checking your area Good luck!

Torben Wehling

Okay thank you

Zachary Barnett

AMAZING! I loved it. I want to do this now.

Carolly Diez de Medina Gil

Thank you Thank you Thank you!!! I was looking for it for my Boyfriend’s birhtday! yeyyyy I’m so happy for him! I’m so glad for your post!!! thanks!

Les Tua

That is even better than the Hitman II cake I got for my 40th birthday. Now I’m gonna get this one made for my 50th. Cheers!!

Sir Doctor of TARDIS

i think i’ll make this for my own birthday next year.

Kori L Carothers

Now we can make this cake! Thanks for posting!

Aurélie

It’s the most amazing TARDIS cake I ever seen !!! I wish I could have seen the reaction of the little boy

AversaS

Incredible!

Sarra Kisti

Thank you for this amazing tutorial..I hope to use it soon..but I had a question please, could you tell me how many servings this Tardis cake will yield ? And what do you suggest I do to have one for 20 servings ? Thank you very much..

artisancakes

The cake I made serves 10. To make one that serves 20, I would make five 6″ square cakes and stake those. It would serve 24

Sarra Kisti

Thank you

Jen

My daughter requested a tardis cake for her birthday, so I’m doing my best but the skill level required for this is far beyond any cake I’ve ever made before, so I’m feeling a little overwhelmed. One thing I’m confused about; did you use one or two square cakes?

artisancakes

I used one 8 inch square and cut it into four, 4″ square pieces and stacked those

Jen

But you have eight squares stacked, right? Am I missing something?

artisancakes

You cut each square in half (at least I did) but you don’t have to. Just stack the 8 squares. Don’t forget the cardboard in the middle to support the cake from squishing down

Jen

Oh, OK. Now I get it! Thanks!

Jen Bringhurst

My daughter requested a tardis cake for her birthday, so I’m doing my best but the skill level required for this is far beyond any cake I’ve ever made before, so I’m feeling a little overwhelmed. One thing I’m confused about. Did you use one or two square cakes?

Katie

Love the cake!!! I am going to attempt this for my husbands birthday. Is the modeling chocolate recipe you referenced the correct amount needed for the cake or does it need to be doubled, tripled, ect?

CakesMyWay

How long does the floral light stay on, can it be turned off?

artisancakes

Stays on for a couple days. Once it’s inserted it would be hard to get it out as the tab to turn it off is on the bottom

Kristeen Stokes

Hello, Love your cake! I made a Tardis cake (9 X 13 sheet cake) today using your fondant recipe & posted it on my FB page. It turned out really well but now I have requests to buy the cakes. I was wondering do I need to talk with the rights owner to sell a Tardis cake or is it considered public domain since it’s something you would have seen on the streets on London? I’m not sure, was hoping you might know since I’m assuming you sold this one. Please advise. Thanks.

artisancakes

well technically you shouldn’t reproduce anything that represents copyrighted work but as you might have guessed many many bakers go ahead and make the cakes anyway (including myself) there are some licenses I don’t mess with (disney is a huge one) because the are known to not like anyone using their designs but most gaming/geeky companies not only don’t mind, they get excited about cakes made like these. My advice is to use your own discretion and be aware that someone could contact you at some point and tell you to stop making cakes using their copyrighted images.

Kristeen Stokes

Thank you for the response! Good to know & I will definitely stay away from Disney themed cakes unless I add a store bought topper or item of some sort. Going forward I think I will just call it the Police Box cake & not add anything pertaining to DW, this way it’s considered public domain. Thank you again for the feedback I appreciate it!

artisancakes

good idea and you’re welcome!

Guest

Hi! I am just crazy about your work and attention to detail, such an inspiration!. I am making my friend’s wedding cake this fall and I usually work with fondant, but I feel that i could get cleaner results with modeling chocolate. I am wondering, if a cake is covered entirely in modeling chocolate will the chocolate get harder over time and therefore become difficult to cut into cleanly? TIA!

artisancakes

I don’t use modeling chocolate to cover cakes so I am not sure

Jenna Gee

Oh ok! I misunderstood I thought this one cake was covered in modeling chocolate

artisancakes

Oh I see what you’re saying now lol. Sorry I misunderstood the question. I was thinking about covering a cake like I do with normal cakes and I was thinking, I don’t know how that would work lol but yes on this cake I did use modeling chocolate in panels. I wouldn’t say it was easier or cleaner but yes I decided to use modeling chocolate because its a tall skinny cake and chocolate sets up harder than fondant so its more sturdy. It is harder to cut into but not if you don’t make it too thick. Hope that helps!

Guest

Hi! I am just crazy about your work and attention to detail, such an inspiration!. I am making my friend’s wedding cake this fall and I usually work with fondant, but I feel that i could get cleaner results with modeling chocolate. I am wondering, if a cake is covered entirely in modeling chocolate will the chocolate get harder over time and therefore become difficult to cut into cleanly?

Cindi

Where did you get the floral lamp from. I am in Toronto, Canada?????

artisancakes

I got mine from jo-anns craft store

Cindi

Thanks, do you recall how much it was? Where abouts are you?

artisancakes

I am in Oregon. I don’t remember. I used my 40% off coupon so it wasn’t that much. It came in a bag of 10. There where different colors you could buy too

Patricia Attisano

Hi Cindi, I live in Vaughan, and I found similar floral lights in Michaels. They are a bit bigger look more like a button but I’m sure they will work just as well. Good luck I am going to attempt this cake for a HUGE Dr. Who fan, hope it turns out as nice as the artisancakes one.

Renae

The Base – I followed a few points in this terrific tutorial, however I topped a 12″ round cake with white fondant and used airbrush colors instead of duliting gel colors (just one less step) It was easy to apply the salt with a salt grinder. I also airbrushed on the white after the other colors were applied. I did paint the edges of the fondant with black gel instead of black airbrush color. It’s drying now. I have done a tardis cake before and since this cake is due tomorrow, I made fondant panels today, once they are dry I will apply them to the sides of the cake and finish it off. Thanks for the logo template. I’ll post a picture of the base on your FB page. ~ Renae

Becky Mueller

Do you use all modeling chocolate? Or chocolate and fondant? And would it work with just modeling chocolate?

artisancakes

this is made with modeling chocolate

artisancakes

Great tips Renae!

Jennifer

Hello.. This is a fabulous tutorial. I was wondering is there a specific reason you chose to use Modeling Chocolate over fondant with tylose in it?

artisancakes

I was able to do sharper corners and make the cutouts for the sides easier. Just my preference. You can do it however you like

Beata

Fantastic you make it look so easy… thank you for sharing and will try it soon

Kathleen Gally Staskin

I don’t think a cake of that height will fit in my freezer. Will refrigerating it work, or won’t that “set” things enough?

artisancakes

It’s only about 8″ high. But yes you can put it in the fridge. Just takes a bit longer to set

disqus_k8SK36ujRM

Cannot wait to make this! Thankyou for sharing x

Heather

I’ve always wondered how to get a tall cake like that to have straight sides! Thank you so much for the tutorial! This whole cake is fantastic. You do really beautiful work and I love following what you’re up to.